CNA News

ACI Prensa's latest initiative is the Catholic News Agency (CNA), aimed at serving the English-speaking Catholic audience. ACI Prensa (www.aciprensa.com) is currently the largest provider of Catholic news in Spanish and Portuguese.

Washington D.C., Feb 1, 2018 / 04:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As urban Catholic schools nationwide are closing their doors, it may come as a surprise that the Catholic Cristo Rey Network says it is on-pace to expand to a total of 50 schools within the next decade. The network says that it can provide Catholic education in low-income areas for a fraction of the cost of other high schools.

What’s the secret? Through a unique arrangement called the Corporate Work Study Program, Cristo Rey students are placed in entry-level corporate positions for five days a month. Instead of being paid for their work, students earn their tuition.

The Corporate Work Study Program began in the mid-1990s, when Chicago Jesuits were seeking to better serve the city’s Latino community. After surveying residents, they discovered that they most desired a college-prep high school in their neighborhood. When issues of funding came up, the Jesuits assigned to create this new school reached out to a “very creative, original thinker” for ideas.

“They asked [the consultant] for some ideas about how to sustain a private school for students and families who could not afford to pay for it. He came back with the suggestion that every student have a job,” Fr. John P. Foley, S.J., founder of the Cristo Rey Network, told CNA.

“That was the origin of the Cristo Rey concept.”

Students are allowed to work despite being underage due to a law that permits students enrolled in school-supervised and authorized work-study program to be lawfully employed.

More than 3,000 businesses, including Deloitte, PwC, CIBC, Jones Day, United Airlines, and Ernst & Young, employ Cristo Rey students throughout the school year. Initially, the Jesuits reached out to business-owning alumni of Jesuit schools to propose the idea of the Corporate Work Study Program.

According to Foley, the Jesuit connection provided a great assist to the program.

“It almost seemed enough for those alumni to hear that this was something the Jesuits were thinking about doing for them to say yes, they would give a job. It was almost a blind act of faith in their former teachers,” said Foley.

The first Cristo Rey school, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, opened in Chicago in 1996, with Foley as president. There are now 32 Cristo Rey schools across throughout the country, and the Cristo Rey Network is currently on target to open an additional eight schools by 2020.

About 10,000 students attend Cristo Rey schools, and on average, their parents pay about $1,000 annually in tuition fees. Nearly eight out of 10 Cristo Rey students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and almost all students are people of color.

Unlike other networks of Catholic schools, Cristo Rey schools are administered by a variety of religious communities, including the Jesuits, Dominicans, Salesians, and Franciscans. Others are run by a particular diocese, such as Cristo Rey Boston High School.

About 40 percent of students in the Cristo Rey Network are not Catholic, and students are welcome to attend the school regardless of what faith they practice, or if they’re not religious at all.

“All of our schools teach a standards-based religious studies curriculum in which all students must complete four years of religious studies courses,” said Alyse Faour, an advancement associate with Cristo Rey, in an interview with CNA. In addition to the required religion classes, there are student ministry programs on campus to assist with spiritual formation.

According to its website, students are admitted to Cristo Rey schools regardless of their abilities, and the average student begins high school about two grade levels behind. Despite this, about nine out of 10 graduates will enroll in college, which is a higher rate than enrollment levels of some high-income students.

“Cristo Rey graduates (...) are completing bachelor’s degrees at more than twice the rate of high school graduates from low-income families nationwide,” said Faour. “We’re making strong progress towards them earning college degrees at national rates comparable to students from families in the highest income quartile.”

Cristo Rey schools currently exist in 21 states, plus the District of Columbia. Schools in Texas, California, Florida, Virginia, Nevada, and Oklahoma are currently in development and on target to open within the next three years.

Houston, Texas, Feb 1, 2018 / 03:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A Catholic parish in Houston is encouraging sports fans to pray with handmade rosaries in the colors of their favorite professional teams. They’re encouraging the Pope to pray with one too.

Next week, a group of Houston-area pilgrims will present Pope Francis with a handmade Astros-themed rosary when they visit the pontiff on Feb. 6.

The story of the rosaries began when Houston hosted the 2016 Super Bowl.

“We had the idea during the Super Bowl of having candles out at a shrine that we set up for Saint Sebastian, who is the patron saint of athletes. We had orange colored candles and blue colored candles representing the two opposing teams,” explained Father Paul Felix, pastor of Annunciation Catholic Church in Houston.

“The object of it was just to encourage people to pray, and to include God and the life of faith in all of their activities,” he told CNA.
“I have three out of the four major sporting venues and the convention center within my parish boundaries,” Father Felix added. “I’ve been trying to seize upon these opportunities to engage the culture, to engage the people passing by us with a positive expression.”

“Tens of thousands of people pass by us...so we decided to open up the church and provided tours of the church as another way to catechize in a way that was easy for people. We opened the doors and it was wonderful...It was another way that we could get people into our church to see the beauty of the church,” Annunciation parishioner Elsie Hernandez told CNA.

With the start of the 2016 baseball season, Annunciation Church, which is located next door to the Astros’ stadium, decided to set up a table for the baseball fans passing by.

This time they were selling rosaries with the Astros team colors of blue and orange, and little white baseballs for the Our Father beads. Annunciation Church also put up a banner facing the stadium, recognizing the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, and saying ‘Pray the Rosary.”

Father Felix eventually realized that fans of the opposing teams also walked by their Church to the stadium, so the parish began offering other colored rosaries as well.

“We are praying that the other team would be good losers,” the priest joked.

As the Astros’ season took off, Annunciation’s rosary campaign began getting notice. Rumors spread in Houston that whenever the parish sold out of the rosaries, the Astros would win by a landslide. Fans began waiting in line for the rosaries before each game.

“We had players’ parents coming in to light candles for their son if he was pitching. Coaches’ wives came in to tell us stories of how they prayed during the games when things were getting really exciting,” Hernandez recounted.

“Jim Crane, the owner of the Astros, came over and purchased a couple of rosaries and lit a candle. He told me that he is a Lutheran, but he has friends that are Catholic. He gives rosaries to his friends,” said Father Felix.

When Hurricane Harvey devastated the city of Houston, the Astros rosaries took on a new significance. Parishioners from Annunciation brought their rosaries to the nearby convention center where nearly 10,000 people were taking shelter from the flooding. “For two weeks we were having Mass there everyday...We gave thousands of rosaries away,” Hernandez said. Another Houston priest, Father Norbert Maduzia Jr., had originally planned a pilgrimage to Rome for his parishioners in September 2017. The trip was postponed when Hurricane Harvey devastated his parish, St. Ignatius, which took in about six feet of flood water.

“I had written to the Holy Father about our parish’s catastrophic loss after the hurricane and told him of our pilgrimage that was postponed due to the flooding and losses,” Father Maduzia wrote in his parish bulletin, “and in the early hours of December 26th, I received a fax from his office inviting me and the other priest to concelebrate the morning Mass with him.”

Father Maduzia and Father James Burkhart of Christ the Good Shepherd in Houston will concelebrate Mass with Pope Francis on Feb. 6. They will bring the Pope several Houston themed gifts, including an orange and blue Astros rosary.

The Pope has told reporters that his favorite sports team is the Argentine soccer team San Lorenzo, whose colors are red and blue. There is no word yet whether he will place a custom order with his Houston visitors.

Washington D.C., Feb 1, 2018 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- When it comes to the Church’s pro-life witness, consistency matters. Ignoring or denying human dignity in one sphere, undermines our defense of human dignity in other spheres. When we emphasize only one note, we lose the harmony of the whole symphony of truth.

As Catholics, we are called to proclaim the fullness of the truth, including in public life and in our role as citizens.

Earlier this week, Senate Democrats outvoted a bill—the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act—which would have effectively banned abortions after the twentieth week of pregnancy. The bill’s failure was not a surprise. No one thought that the bill would receive the 60 votes required to overcome the filibuster. In the end, it failed, 51-46.

Given that Catholic legislators were actually decisive in a move protecting abortion, Monday’s vote was particularly damaging to the credibility of Catholic witness to the sanctity of human life.

Many of these senators, no doubt, proudly and sincerely claim that their Catholic faith has taught them to see public policy as a means for defending the vulnerable and promoting the common good. And yet when it comes to abortion, their bold conviction about the moral imperatives of their faith suddenly evaporates, and zeal for justice gives way to timid excuses about “personally opposed” and “wouldn’t want to impose.”

This inconsistency leads otherwise sensible people to espouse the least defensible and most monstrous of all positions on abortion: Professing that, as Catholics, they believe abortion is just what the Catholic Church says it is—“an unspeakable crime” (Vatican II) and “the murder of an innocent person” (Pope Francis)—and then, without missing a beat, fighting tooth and nail to ensure that nothing endangers the legal protection of this same atrocity.

One can already hear the objections: This sort of inconsistency isn’t just a problem for Catholic Democrats! There are pro-choice Catholics in the Republican Party, too! And there are any number of issues on which Republican-preferred policies aren’t with the Church. What about immigration? Or economic justice? Or the environment?

The point here isn’t about parties, it’s about priorities. There are many ways that human dignity and life are attacked. But the scale of the slaughter—almost a million abortions every year—and the gravity of the evil demand that ending or curbing abortion be a top priority.

There has been a revival recently, in part thanks to Pope Francis, of the “consistent ethic of life” (or “seamless garment,” as it’s sometimes called) popularized by the late Cardinal Bernardin. It begins from the premise that all issues affecting the dignity of the human person are essentially interrelated: Yes, life in the womb is precious and deserves legal protection, the theory goes, but the same commitment to human dignity that leads us to protect that precious life also requires us to defend human dignity elsewhere—in the sick and poor, the elderly, immigrants and refugees, even those who have been convicted of terrible crimes and are sitting on death row.

This is the consistent ethic of life in its best and truest form: a powerful (and much-needed) reminder of the integrity of Catholic moral teaching.

But as even Cardinal Bernardin lamented, this is not always how the idea of a consistent life ethic is put to use:

“I know that some people on the left, if I may use that label, have used the consistent ethic to give the impression that the abortion issue is not all that important anymore, that you should be against abortion in a general way but that there are more important issues, so don’t hold anybody’s feet to the fire just on abortion. That’s a misuse of the consistent ethic, and I deplore it. But the misuse does not invalidate the argument.”

Rather than a defense of the integrity of Catholic doctrine, the “consistent ethic of life” has too often been abused as a way to deflect criticism away from pro-abortion politicians and those who support them.

And this brings us back to those 14 Catholic senators who voted to protect, not life, but its destruction.

The greatest, most glaring inconsistency in Catholic witness to human dignity and the sanctity of life is the widespread Catholic facilitation of, and support for, the killing of innocent children through abortion. Nothings shreds the seamless garment of Catholic moral witness more wantonly. Nothing undermines the preciousness of every human life more dramatically.

Working to protect the unborn must be a priority, not despite our need to be consistent in our defense of dignity and life, but precisely because of it. We all need to examine ourselves and, with the Church’s guidance, work to ensure we have our priorities are straight. It’s not just our consistency that’s at stake; millions of lives, and millions of souls, are, too.

Stephen P. White is a fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC. He is the author of “Red, White, Blue, and Catholic.” His opinions do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of Catholic News Agency.

They had planned to stay in Amsterdam an extra day, but changed their minds last minute and boarded the express train to Paris. They didn’t expect to come face-to-face with an armed man who would open-fire in their cabin, which was carrying 554 passengers. But they did.

They didn’t have much time. Stone tackled the gunman first, and worked together with Sadler and Skarlatos to overpower the man and effectively thwart the attack.

The gunman, who was identified as Ayoub El-Khazzani, was a Moroccan national who had been on the radar of several European counterterrorism agencies. He was carrying several weapons, including a Kalashnikov, automatic pistol and razor blades.

However, the three American men - plus one British man named Chris Norman - were able to successfully stop El-Khazzani before the attack turned fatal. Stone sustained serious injuries which required surgery. But they prevented something far worse.

At the time, Sadler was just a senior in college at Sacramento State University, while Skarlatos and Stone were in the military. The three had been friends since middle-school.

Now, the heroic trio are starring in the latest Clint Eastwood film, “15:17 to Paris.” They play themselves and recount the entire event on the big screen.

The film’s will be released in theaters nationwide on Feb. 9.

CNA recently interviewed Sadler, Skarlatos and Stone. Below is the full interview, edited for clarity.

Can you share a little about your faith and the impact it has had on your lives?

STONE: I was raised in a Christian home, my entire life. Went to church every Sunday with my mom and brother and sister and Wednesday night church, too. I believed [in God] my entire life. God for me is someone that is always there and always will have my back, whether it’s a good or bad situation. And it’s in the Bible, He’s not going to put you through anything that you can’t handle. And, I think that’s what I fell back on in the moment on the train. I didn’t necessarily at that second think ‘God’s got my back,’ but I knew it. There was an opportunity to do something good. I believe those are the times where we’re vessels to be used by Him, to do His work. And it was an honor to do something that good.

SADLER: I’ve been going to church all my life. My dad is a pastor. He became a pastor when I was older. We were a strong Baptist household. We went to church every Sunday, all the services. My family is Christian, faith-believing and I’ve grown up that way. And as far as on the train that day, God had His hand on us, because so many things could've went the other way for us. And the fact that they went the way they did, it’s divine intervention. It’s that by definition. We knew He had His hand on us, because of the calm that we had as we were falling into our different roles that day - looking back on it in hindsight. That calm, I know where that comes from now that I’ve had a chance to evaluate that day. And I’m thankful that He had His hand on us that day.

SKARLATOS: I grew up next to Spencer’s family. We went to the same church for the longest time. We all met in a Christian school. I’ve been to church pretty much ever since I can remember. If you look at the statistics of everything that happened, the odds of being in a terrorist attack are astronomical, the odds of surviving it, the odds of surviving it and being the ones that stopped it. There’s so many little circumstances. The odds of our exact situation happening to us are too astronomical to believe that it was purely chance, especially when you look at the fact that we were thinking about staying in Amsterdam another day and we didn’t. The fact that we moved seats from coach to first class. So many different little things that are hard for even us to remember - all the different circumstances that put us there in that exact time and place. But to me it’s too coincidental to be chance. God had a hand in it, because we shouldn't be here today to be honest.

How did your faith influence your actions on the train? What prompted you to act so heroically in the face of eminent danger?

SADLER: We were vessels being used. I don’t even know how I got the first aid kit, but somehow it was in my hands. Alek was doing his thing clearing the car. Spencer saw somebody was bleeding and crawled over there. When did we think of that? We didn’t think. We were just being used.

STONE: How well everything fell into place, you would think we rehearsed it. It was pretty much like we took over the train. I never felt more calm in my entire life. I knew exactly what we should do in that moment. It almost felt like someone pushed me towards it. I knew in my mind I had to go, and something greater stood me up. I think that’s why they’re still confused about how I got up so fast. I don’t know how I got up so fast either. I’m pretty slow!

What was your experience like filming “15:17 to Paris,” and reliving those tense moments on the train?

STONE: It was pretty crazy when we did the scene of Mark bleeding out. That was the only time I really felt like I had a true flashback, because everything was the same. It was the same amount of blood, same clothes. That was probably the most memorable part on the train for me.

SKARLATOS: It definitely made it easier to get back into character. You have to remember how it was on the actual day. And, I don’t know about the other guys, but it would trigger an adrenaline rush in me and it make it easier to feel the same emotions that we actually felt the day on the train.

SADLER: It shows how much the details matter, like same clothes, same people, train attendants, everything. That made it all feel authentic.

What do you hope viewers will take away from the film?

SADLER: I want them to take exactly what it is. The fact that we’re three ordinary guys that were faced with an extraordinary, crazy situation. And the reason why we acted the way we did that day is because of our friendship - the back-story matters. And then take away that they can, as people, a regular person, do something great, too. To feel like things are possible that they previously didn’t think were possible.

STONE: I want them to take away that in our story, we thought we had no chance at all. I thought I was going to die. We’re all regular people. We’re very regular guys.

How has your experience on the train/filming the movie impacted your lives moving forward? Has it changed the way you live, or taught you any particular lessons?

SKARLATOS: I think making the film taught us a lot about ourselves. Then working through the process ourselves, we discovered a lot of things about ourselves, about our friendship, how we interact. And, for me I learned from the movie not to be afraid to try new things in life.

It cured a lot of my fears, even of public speaking. You know, if I can survive a terrorist attack, when the next challenge in life comes, it’s nothing in comparison.

STONE: We definitely learned a lot about each other throughout the last two years in general. We’ve known each other our entire lives, but, we’ve spent most our lives apart, going off on our own paths and different avenues. We, in a sense, got to learn more about each other as adults and through this experience. We knew each other, but now we really know each other. And we’re bonded forever through all of our experiences.

SADLER: For me it was the first time in my life I finally felt like I was on track. I was going to go into my senior year at college and I didn’t know after that year was over what I was going to do next.

And then once the attack happened and everything else that’s happened in the last two years, and the fact that the movie happened, the way it’s all lined up, I feel like I’m finally on the track that I’m supposed to be on. So, I don’t know what comes next, but I’m on the plan that’s been set for me. That’s a good feeling, I have confidence in knowing I’m going in the right direction.

Washington D.C., Jan 31, 2018 / 05:53 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- United States President Donald Trump made immigration reform a major topic of his first State of the Union address, touting an immigration reform package that has been met with concern from the U.S. bishops.

Among the guests who were recognized during the Jan. 30 speech were the parents of two girls who were killed by MS-13 gang members in 2016, as well as a Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent who has spent 15 years fighting criminal organizations.

“The United States is a compassionate nation,” Trump said. “We are proud that we do more than any other country to help the needy, the struggling, and the underprivileged all over the world. But as President of the United States, my highest loyalty, my greatest compassion, and my constant concern is for America's children, America's struggling workers, and America's forgotten communities.”

Trump laid out the four-pillar immigration reform plan that he said the House and Senate would be voting on in the next few weeks. The proposed reform package includes a “10-12 year path to citizenship, with requirements for work, education and good moral character” for 1.8 million immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, known as Dreamers.

The Dreamers had been protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals implemented by the Obama Administration. However, the Trump Administration has announced that the policy will be rescinded in March. Without a legislative solution, hundreds of thousands could face the threat of deportation.

The immigration proposal also provides for the building of a wall on the border with Mexico, and the ending of the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, also known as the visa lottery, which allows up to 50,000 immigrants from countries with historically low rates of immigration to enter the United States after being randomly selected and vetted.

In addition, the plan would clamp down on the practice of “chain migration,” also known as “family reunification,” a policy under which American citizens or green-card holders can petition for close family members to join them in the U.S.

In response to the President’s proposed reforms, Bishop Joe S. Vásquez of Austin, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration, called the cuts to family immigration and elimination of protections for Dreamers “deeply troubling.”

“Upholding and protecting the family unit, regardless of its national origins, is vital to our faith,” Bishop Vásquez said. “Additionally, in searching for a solution for Dreamers, we must not turn our backs on the vulnerable. We should not, for example, barter the well-being of unaccompanied children for the well-being of the Dreamers. We know them all to be children of God who need our compassion and mercy.”

In 2003, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a pastoral letter on migration in which they stressed that economically powerful nations have “a stronger obligation to accommodate migration flows” when “persons cannot find employment in their country of origin to support themselves and their families.”

In 2013, the U.S. bishops reaffirmed their stance on immigration based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, citing two equally important duties: welcoming the foreigner out of charity and respect for the human person, while also securing national borders and enforcing the law for the sake of the common good.

The bishops have called for an earned legalization program that would “allow foreign nationals of good moral character who are living in the United States to apply to adjust their status to obtain lawful permanent residence;” a future worker program “to permit foreignborn workers to enter the country safely and legally;” family-based immigration reform; restoration of due process rights for illegal immigrants; long-term solutions to the “the root causes of migration, such as underdevelopment and poverty in sending countries;” and the promotion of “targeted, proportional, and humane” enforcement of immigration laws.

Bishop Vásquez called for a bipartisan, narrowly-tailored solution that respects families.

“As pastors and leaders of the Church, we see this fear and sadness in our parishes and as such, continue to call for immediate action,” he said.

Minneapolis, Minn., Jan 31, 2018 / 05:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday, the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles will go head-to-head in Super Bowl LII, facing off to claim the Lombardi Trophy at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, MN. The Archbishops of Boston and Philadelphia have already placed wagers on the game.

The archbishops jointly announced a bet on Wednesday: Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia said he would donate to $100 to Catholic Charities Boston if the Patriots prevail, while Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston said he would donate to $100 to St. John’s Hospice in Philadelphia if the Eagles win.

Catholic Charities Boston offers social services to thousands of individuals and families in the Massachusetts area. St. John’s Hospice is an emergency service provider to the homeless in Philadelphia, and also helps the homeless to find stable residences.

To raise the stakes, Archbishop Chaput and Cardinal O’Malley, who are both Capuchin Franciscan and friends from their seminary days, also said they would add Philadelphia cheesesteaks and Boston lobsters to the wager.

“Each year the Super Bowl is viewed by millions of people throughout the world,” read a Jan. 31 statement from Chaput and O’Malley.

“In the spirit of friendly competition, we have issued our wager because we have confidence in our teams and, more importantly, based on our admiration for the commitment of the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots to assist their local communities and respond to the needs of the less fortunate,” the statement continued.

Both Chaput and O’Malley also made predictions for the Super Bowl outcome. Chaput is counting on an Eagle’s victory, 24-20, while O’Malley believes the Patriots will claim the trophy, 34-21.

No matter the outcome, they both prayed for a safe sporting event for everyone involved.

“We pray for a safe and enjoyable Super Bowl for both teams and all spectators, and that the gifts of God’s love and peace may bring us closer together as a society.”

While Bishop Vasquez said the bishops are pleased that a path to citizenship for the “Dreamers” is part of the plan, he is critical of proposed restrictions on family unification and the elimination of the protections for unaccompanied minors.

“Family immigration is pat of the bedrock of our country and of our Church,” said Vasquez in a statement released by the USCCB.

“Upholding and protecting the family unit, regardless of its national origins, is vital to our faith.”

Further, Vasquez said that he did not think it was right to effectively try to bargain one aspect of immigration reform, a path to citizenship for “Dreamers” brought illegally to the United States as children, with protections for unaccompanied minors.

“We know them all to be children of God who need our compassion and mercy,” Vasquez said.

Vasquez urged for Republicans and Democrats to work together to come up with a solution, and fast, as “time is of the essence” for Dreamers and unaccompanied minors. He called on elected officials to “show leadership” to pass legislation that would both protect national security interests as well as “humane, proportionate, and just” to undocumented people.

Called FakeApp, the program uses neural network technology to replace the faces of pornographic actors with celebrities, or, if enough video is available, with the faces of ordinary people.

The app does not require programming skills; it can be used by anyone with the kind of computer capable of running detailed video games.

Father Sean Kilcawley, director of marriage and family life ministries in the Diocese of Lincoln, and a nationally recognized speaker on the theology of the body, said fake pornography is as spiritually damaging to the soul as any other porn, but socially, the trend has the potential to be uniquely destructive.

“Pornography is pornography, in terms of it being evil. It’s always evil. [Fake pornography] is not anything that is actually brand new because there have been fake pornography photos for a very long time,” he told CNA.

“One of the dangers of this technology, though, is that some kid is going to take some girl’s yearbook photo and put her on a porn stars body,” he said.

The creator of the app has expressed hope that his face-swamping platform will become more available and accessible.

“Eventually, I want to improve it to the point where prospective users can simply select a video on their computer, download a neural network correlated to a certain face from a publicly available library, and swap the video with a different face with the press of one button,” the app’s creator told Motherboard.

Matt Fradd, author of “The Porn Myth” and host to the podcast “Love People Use Things,” cautioned against the danger of the app, which he said will invade the celebrities’ privacy and inflict harm upon their reputation. “It will get to the point where we’re not really sure if whether Jennifer Aniston just did a porn film, or whoever the celebrity is, or if this is one of the AI things. So we are dragging people’s reputation through the mud and we are humiliating them,” Fradd told CNA.

But it won’t stop there, he continued.

“If they can do that with celebrities they can do that with your sister or with your mom if they wanted to.”

Father Kilcawley agreed, cautioning that face-swapping pornography will damage reputations and self-esteem.

“For the humiliation a girl would have if they put her face on a porn star’s body, and then sent the video around to everybody in school … Not only [damaging their reputation] but simply damaging them.”

The new technology, he said, follows a trend set by “revenge pornography” – a social media practice in which angry exes distribute nude photos or videos of former romantic partners.

“There has been a spike in suicides [because of] revenge pornography among young people, Kilcawley said.

A 2015 BBC analysis found that of 1,160 reported revenge pornography cases in England, 30 percent of the victims were under the age of 19.

With the ability to feed an algorithm photos found online, Father Kilcawley expressed concern that face-swapping porn videos will also be used for revenge pornography, and, because of the advancements in technology, they will be even more damaging to young women than real photos or videos.

“It will be equally dangerous to someone’s soul who would be consuming it, but I think socially it may inflict a lot more damage than we are thinking about right now,” he said.

Fradd told CNA that Catholics should respond to pornography with the wisdom of the Church.

“I think the Church has the answer to what is the human person and how we can be happy, just like the nutritionist has the answer to what should I be eating if I want a healthy body,” he said.

Pointing to John Paul II’s theology of the body, Fradd said the only proper response to the human person is love, and pornography always contradicts love.

“Wojtyla says the human person is a good to which the only proper and adequate attitude is love, but when we consume pornography we are always engaging in something contrary to love, namely use.”

Denver, Colo., Jan 31, 2018 / 05:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Not long ago, introducing more technology into the classroom meant allowing third graders to play 15 minutes of Oregon Trail during recess time.

In recent years, particularly after the emergence of smartphones and other mobile devices circa 2012, for many schools it has meant an iPad for every student, laptops in every classroom.

However, new research has begun highlighting the detrimental impacts of excessive screen time, particularly on developing brains and on education, sparking concerns among educators and parents. Even tech industry giants are starting to speak openly about the dangers of internet addiction and the need to monitor children’s screen time.

For Catholic schools, the issue is especially pressing, some school leaders say, because Catholic schools are concerned with the human and spiritual formation of their students.

Michael Edghill, principal of Notre Dame Catholic School in Wichita Falls, Texas, told CNA that his biggest concern is a tendency to let technology become the main driving force of education, rather than a tool of support for teachers and students.

“For a Catholic school, that is a bad paradigm to fall into because it takes a rightly formed person to undertake the task of human formation, which is the mission of Catholic education,” he said. “No machine or technological tool can appropriately engage in the formation of the soul.”

Jean Twenge is a psychologist and the author of “iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood.”

Twenge told CNA that her research found the “sweet spot” for screen time for teenagers should be about 2 hours per day “for mental health, happiness, and adequate sleep. Beyond that, the risks increase, topping out at the highest levels of use.”

Notably, but perhaps not unsurprisingly, most US teens report average daily screen times well over the recommended two hours.

In 2015, research group Common Sense Media reported that more half of US teenagers spend at least four hours a day on a screen, while 25 percent of teens reported even higher uses - more than eight hours daily - with the potential of detrimental effects.

“For example, teens who use electronic devices 5 or more hours a day are 71% more likely to have a risk factor for suicide than those using devices less than an hour a day,” Twenge said. “They are also 51% more likely to not sleep enough. Teens who are online 5 or more hours a day are twice as likely to be unhappy as those online less than an hour a day.”

As for educational impacts, research has also found that smartphones can impact a person’s ability to think simply by being within reach - even if they are turned off. Another study found that students taught in computer-less classrooms performed significantly better on tests than their counterparts taught in classrooms with iPads and computers.

The human, relational and educational concerns are why some Catholics schools are taking steps to limit, if not completely ban, the use of smartphones and iPads in the classroom.

St. Benedict Elementary in Natick, Mass. is one Catholic school that has taken the approach of not using electronic technology in the classroom at all, except for very limited ways in the higher grades.

Jay Boren, headmaster of St. Benedict, told CNA that this is because the classical academy was founded by parents who had a desire for their school to be different.

“There are studies that show that (student) memory retention is better when they have written the information as opposed to having typed it. There are also benefits to learning cursive,” Boren said.

“In addition, an environment that is not inundated with fast-paced technology...allows students to cultivate the ability to sustain attention, develop concentration, and appreciate silence, which are the necessary dispositions to ponder truth, beauty, and goodness, We feel that those skills, are more important at this age level than mastering a screen that they will certainly be exposed to throughout their life at other times.”

On the other hand, Fr. Nicholas Rokitka, OFM Conv., teaches at Archbishop Curley High School in Buffalo, New York, which implemented a 1-to-1 iPad to student program four years ago.

“My major concern about technology in the classroom is the inability of the students to focus on the topic at hand and listen to the teacher,” Rokitka told CNA. “It certainly has changed the way teachers and students interact.”

Rokitka said that games and entertainment are always a potential distraction with the iPads in the classroom. While he has his room set up in a way that allows him to monitor his students’ iPad use closely, such monitoring “takes up a lot of my energy.”

There have been some positive impacts, Rokitka noted - the school has saved a lot of paper using digital homework and tests, and performance trends can be more quickly and easily recognized and addressed.

However, he added that without intentionality behind its use, technology negatively change the way students relate to one another and the world.

“On a very fundamental level, technology changes how people interact with each other. If technology is accepted wholesale without and intention, it will do more harm than good. When digital communication and social media replace face-to-face interaction, the students lose their ability to communicate,” he said. “This problem is way larger than just schools, but ultimately teachers and schools can have a dramatic input on how children learn how to use technology.”

Twenge said that she recommends schools ban the use of cellphones not only in the classroom, but during lunch as well, in order to give students a chance to interact with each other without a screen.

In interviews with students for her research, Twenge discovered students who would feel depressed and left out while their fellow students ignored them at lunch, favoring their phones instead, she wrote in the New York Daily News. “A no-phones-at-school rule would also help teens develop invaluable social skills. More and more managers tell me that young job applicants don't look them in the eye and seem to be uncomfortable talking to people face-to-face. If our students are going to succeed in the workplace, they need more practice interacting with people in person,” she wrote. “They can get that right there at school - if they aren't constantly on their phones.”

Edghill said that his biggest guiding principle in the use of technology in school has been intentionality - which is exactly why the school banned cell phone use in school during the school day.

“It was an intentional decision based on the fact that there was little to no educational benefit and a whole slew of potential and real problems,” he said.

“The unplanned side effect is that the students actually talk to one another before school in the mornings now instead of just staring at their individual screens.”

A father to four children between 14 and 3, Edghill noted that he and his wife try to implement the same intentionality with technology use at home, by enforcing limits and being consistent with them, though he admitted there has been a learning curve.

“I do think that the more time that they watch screens, the less creative and the less curious they are. But it is a constant battle. It may be one of the most counter-cultural things that we can do for our kids,” he said. “And that is saying something as a Catholic.”

It’s also important to note that technology is simply a tool, and “not an evil,” he said.

“The pope is active on social media. My bishop is active on Twitter. But it is for the greater good of reaching out to people in order to create the opportunity for an authentic encounter with Christ,” he said.

“If the technology is replacing humanity as opposed to being used as a tool to advance humanity, that is the problem...If we miss the human element of the teacher, of person-to-person dialogue and debate, of human experience, then we can't fully do our part to cooperate in the formation of the human person.”

New York City, N.Y., Jan 30, 2018 / 05:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A Hungarian cardinal has said that free societies must depend on the wisdom of religion to address the moral and social problems of the modern world.

Addressing Columbia students and faculty, Erdo warned about the dangers of moral relativism, and discussed the necessity of the Church in a secular state.

The cardinal said that relativism— the inability to declare something as objectively right or objectively wrong—is a “grave crisis” of modern secular states. Without a foundation in natural law, he argued, societies become unstable, and moral evil becomes permissible.

“It is difficult for the state to decide what is good for man,” said Erdo, without some foundation in natural law and a religious worldview. Absent natural law and “by a weakening of belief in the rationality of the world,” societies lose trust in democratic institutions.

”Even the majority can end up with wrong or harmful decisions, especially if the concept of the common good becomes uncertain, because there is no consensus even on the anthropological foundations of law,” explained the cardinal.

Erdo said that until the philosophical Enlightenment, societies were effectively governed with an understanding that moral law was based on transcendent realities.

“Law, morals and religion prove to form an organic whole, which is characteristic of Western society right up to the age of Enlightenment,” Erdo said.

But in the modern era, relativism has separated legal norms from the natural law, he said. "The idea of relativity and the unknowability of the natural law, or the rules of upright human behavior based on its connexion with nature, gains ground, as also does the separation of law from so-called natural morals.”

Due to the rise of relativism, the relationship between religion, the state, and a person’s worldview became “a problem.”

The separation of morality from law has led to the creation of immoral laws, such as the ones that existed in Nazi Germany, said Cardinal Erdo.

“The trials of Nuremberg showed where the separation of law and morals can lead. It was not easy to convict people whose actions were based on current, but immoral laws.”

The cardinal said that in the era of the Soviet Union, religion and morals were, in theory, replaced by Marxist-Leninist ideology. When the ideology fell, a “moral vacuum” was formed. Seeing this, leaders of formerly communist countries began trying to recreate a religious and moral framework for society, and are not bothered with “relativist ideologies.”

He mentioned that many former communist countries countries specifically mentioned the importance of religion in their new constitutions. For instance, Erdo’s home country of Hungary explicitly recognizes “churches, denominations and religious communities […] are entities of prominent importance, capable of creating values and communities.”

The cardinal noted that in the West, humanity is witness a “shaking of the anthropological foundations of democracy.”

"Western democracies presume that politicians and parties present and defend their political programs on a rational basis and that mature and responsible citizens make their choices and elect people using rational arguments,” he said.

“Today, this sounds like a utopia…the picture of reality has become very complicated.”

“There has to be a lot of trust for someone to believe the basic premises of a political program, so that the elected body, based on a democratic majority, can count on the trust of that society. It seems to be a vicious circle. We have to place our trust in somebody in anticipation, in order to let such a decision pass, in which we can trust,” he added.

Erdo expressed concern about the effect that scientific advances will have on human rights without a religious moral framework regulating society. He said that technological advances are moving quicker than legal morality can keep up, and that this is a new challenge humanity will be facing.

“But the discoveries open new levels of reality, so the description of facts needed for moral evaluation and legal treatment are falling behind,” he said.

Despite this, Erdo believes that humans “cannot grow weary” of maintaining “basic moral values,” and that these need to be applied to new situations as well.

Erdo said that the West’s Judeo-Christian heritage is centered on a belief in a benevolent God, and the hope that a Creator seeks to communicate with humanity. That communication drives trust.

“And this, beyond giving a basic moral point of view, gives something extra, which is even more important. It generates trust both in the individual and in the community,” said the cardinal.

“It generates trust that even though our cognitive abilities cannot keep up with the fullness of reality, we can always somehow reach the necessary knowledge and cognitions…the weakness of our recognition is not a reason to give up our pursuit of the truth.”

The Bampton Lectures in America were created in 1948, and feature talks from theologians, scientists, and artists.

Washington D.C., Jan 30, 2018 / 02:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic organizations applauded the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Jan. 29 announcement that it is lifting the ban on refugees from 11 high-risk countries, with the condition of additional security screening for new arrivals.

“We were happy to see that that processing is resuming,” said Matthew Wilch, refugee policy advisor for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“We look forward to welcoming refugees and, of course, we very strongly agree that it is important that the refugee program be safe and have a strong vetting procedure,” Wilch told CNA.

After passing through an enhanced vetting process implemented during a 90-day review period, individuals from countries that are deemed to pose a heightened security threat may now be offered asylum in the U.S.

“These additional security measures will make it harder for bad actors to exploit our refugee program, and they will ensure we take a more risk-based approach to protecting the homeland,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen on Jan. 29.

Following a temporary ban on all refugees worldwide, President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Refugee Admission Program to begin accepting new refugees again in October 2017, with the exception of 11 countries deemed to be high-risk, who would be restricted for a 90-day review period.

Although officials did not release which countries were temporarily prohibited, aid agencies and media outlets have reported them to be Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – a list of high-risk countries dating back to the Obama administration.

One of the new security procedures called for by the DHS is “a periodic review and update of the refugee high-risk country list and selection criteria,” according to a Jan. 29 press release.

“In 2017, the President directed us to assess the program and make any needed changes. As a result of that review, and in close coordination with the State Department and our intelligence community, we will be rolling out new security measures for applicants from high risk countries which will seek to prevent the program from being exploited by terrorists, criminals and fraudsters,” Secretary Nielsen explained at an event at the Woodrow Wilson Center on Jan. 29 before the announcement.

Catholic Relief Services’ vice president for government relations and advocacy Bill O’Keefe said that his organization is “pleased to see the Administration is now accepting refugees from countries that were previously banned from entering the United States.”

“We hope now that the Administration will raise the refugee limit and allow more of our brothers and sisters into this country so that we can do our part to give them a safe and secure future,” he told CNA.

The Trump administration lowered the cap on refugee admissions from 110,000 down to 45,000 for the year that started in October 2017.

“As Pope Francis has said, it’s important for us to share the journey with the displaced, and this is one way we can welcome them into our homes and communities,” O’Keefe said.

Miami, Fla., Jan 30, 2018 / 12:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The future of tens of thousands of Haitian migrants is unclear, after the Trump administration decided not to extend legal protections for them.

While the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has filed a legal challenge to the decision, alleging it was racially motivated, Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami has said that Congress must act—and people should be conscious of Haitians’ experience of racial discrimination in the U.S.

“The lawsuit might ‘buy time’ for the affected Haitians; but, more critical is a legislative fix,” the archbishop told CNA. Haitians with temporary protected status are in a “holding pattern,” like being in “limbo.”

“They cannot adjust status to permanent residency, they cannot travel home. So, a permanent legislative solution is where we should put our energies,” he added.

There are at least 46,000 Haitians in the U.S. currently qualified for the TPS program, since a massive 2010 earthquake in Haiti killed 200,000 people and left one million homeless. Hurricane Matthew’s landfall in Haiti caused tremendous damage in October 2016, with the Category 4 storm putting more than 1.4 million people in need of emergency aid.

TPS status allows people who are unable to return safely to their home countries because of armed conflict, other violence, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions to remain in the United States while the situation in their home country resolves. It protects them from deportation and grants them permission to work.

Many Haitians in the U.S. send money back to Haiti to support their relatives.

The Trump administration decided not to renew their protected status in November 2017. Their status is set to end July 22, 2019.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund on Jan. 24 filed suit charging the decision showed “an intent to discriminate on the basis of race and/or ethnicity” and departed from other statutory requirements.

Asked how to avoid apparent or real discrimination in public policy, Archbishop Wenski replied: “Well, insensitive or inflammatory language does not help.”

He reflected on the history of protected status for Haitians, saying the Obama administration followed the Bush administration’s lead in resisting calls to grant protected status to displaced Haitians.

“The last 20 years have been difficult in Haiti – both politically and economically, yet both Bush and Obama routinely rejected requests for TPS alleging that to do so would result in more out migration from Haiti,” Archbishop Wenski said.

“Obama only relented in 2010 when the devastation of the earthquake basically shamed the Obama administration into granting TPS. So, TPS might have gone away even with a different administration, but rhetoric and inflammatory language of some in the administration suggest an animus against people of color,” the archbishop said.

The NAACP lawsuit cited reported comments from President Donald Trump and other actions of the administration, National Public Radio reports. It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on behalf of the NAACP’s Haitian members protected under the program. It aims to secure a court injunction against the decision.

The lawsuit charged that President Trump has “racialized goals concerning immigration.” It cited the president’s private comments reported in the Dec. 23 New York Times in which he allegedly suggested that 15,000 Haitians who came to the U.S. in 2017 “all have AIDS.” At a Jan. 11 meeting regarding DACA, he reportedly asked why the U.S. needs “more Haitians” and immigrants from African countries he described allegedly using a vulgar term of disparagement.

At the time, the remarks drew rebuke from the U.S. bishops’ conference.

The president denied making the remarks in a Jan. 12 tweet, saying “Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said ‘take them out’,” he said, contending that Democrats had made up the claims. “I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians,” he said.

Department of Homeland Security leaders like Acting Secretary Elaine Duke and Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen “took irrational and discriminatory government action, denying Haitian immigrants their right to due process and equal protection under the Fifth Amendment,” the lawsuit charged. It also cited a top U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official’s request on data for crimes committed by Haitians in the protected status program.

Archbishop Wenski, who is fluent in Haitian Creole, said that it is “impossible to discount” the racial factor in considering Haitians’ experience of discrimination.

“In the 1980s Haitians were arriving in significant numbers on boats from Haiti and Cubans on rafts from Cuba: they were coming from same geographical region to the same geographical place, both Cubans and Haitians were fleeing from political oppression and economic misery (in fact the economies of both countries were basket cases because of each country’s lousy politics – one right wing, the other left wing),” he said.

“But the mostly white Cubans were welcomed as ‘political refugees’ – though no Cuban arriving by raft had to even apply for political asylum; and the Haitians were not welcomed because they were perceived as economic refugees and vast majority of their applications for political asylum were routinely denied.”

The archbishop warned of the danger of racism.

“Racism allows us to ‘depersonalize’ or ‘dehumanize’ a whole class of people and thus offend their human dignity,” he said. “Such reductive thinking leads us to view people perceived as different from us as ‘problems’ and not as persons. When we see a class of people as problems then we can be tempted to find ‘solutions’ – even ‘final solutions’ as the tragic history of the twentieth century showed us.”

The lawsuit added that Haiti is “ill-prepared” to receive the tens of thousands of Haitians living in the U.S.

The 2010 earthquake killed over 200,000 and displaced more than one million people. Hurricane Matthew struck the country in 2016, affecting more than two million people.

An estimated 200,000 Salvadorans had temporary protected status due to major earthquakes in El Salvador in 2001, but their status will expire in September 2019. Another 57,000 Hondurans have protected status; the Department of Homeland Security will decide whether to extend or end this status in May.

Archbishop Wenski suggested Haitians and others with TPS status could be addressed in a reported deal on the treatment of beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects U.S. residents brought to the country while they were still minors.

Washington D.C., Jan 30, 2018 / 02:51 am (CNA).- A digital catechetical program for children as young as five aims to equip early learners with Thomistic principles that will help them understand and defend their faith as they grow.

“I think in a lot of curricula, it’s difficult to teach the complexities of the Catholic faith and in such a way that is entertaining and interesting for young children,” said TJ Burdick, founder and director of Tiny Thomists.

“I think the sooner you can ingrain the truths of the Catholic faith into your children, the longer they will last and the more loyal they will be to the Catholic Church because they’ve experienced it intimately with their family.”

With four children of his own, Burdick started developing the curriculum for his eldest daughter in 2016. Having seen the success for his family and an interest from other families in the local Catholic community, he decided to open the catechetical program to the public in January 2017.

Program participants receive bi-weekly emails with lesson plans for children ages 5-10. Each lesson is based on a specific theme and includes relatable and simple passages from Saint Thomas’ Summa Theologica, as well as corresponding examples from the lives of the saints, and a “saintly situation” challenging pupils to address practical circumstances that they may encounter in their own lives.

Additionally, the program contains Gospel passages and Church doctrine in “kid format,” to aid memorization and emergent readers. Simplified reflections on the mysteries of rosary are also available, incorporating both art and explanations of the decades.

Burdick said the program allows children to engage in the complex theology, without overwhelming them.

“I don’t think we give our kids enough credit … I know these kids can do much more than we expect of them, we just have to be courageous enough to challenge them and knowledgeable enough to be able to respond when they grow in that understanding of the Catholic faith.”

The program normally costs $15 per month, but is on sale for $10 per monthfor those who sign up this week.

The goal of Tiny Thomists, Burdick said, is to prepare children for the challenges to be faced in the teenage years, when questions arise about who a person is and what the purpose of life and creation is.

He cited a recent study from St. Mary’s Press and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. The study found that the majority of people who left the Catholic faith decided to do so between the ages of 10 and 20, with a median age of 13.

“At the adolescence age/young adult age they are starting to think about the world and to think about what their place is and what their life is. The whole point of Tiny Thomists is answering those questions before they come.”

Washington D.C., Jan 30, 2018 / 12:07 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Super Bowl Sunday. It's as American as apple pie, but in recent years, controversy has erupted over the beloved American pastime and – considering the risk it poses – whether or not the game of football is even worth it.

Whether one is a devoted football fan, or only watches once a year, Super Bowl Sunday holds a place as a major event for people across the country. However, some say that aspects such as commercialism, graphic content, and the life-changing injuries sustained by players should make Catholics think critically about the game they’re seeing, even as they cheer on the teams before them.

“I love football and in fact it would be difficult to find someone who loves football more than I do,” said Charles Camosy, professor of ethics at Fordham University. He even credits football for his existence, given that his parents met on a train to the Notre Dame-Alabama Sugar Bowl game in 1973.

But despite his love for the game, Camosy said there are a variety of potentially troubling aspects about the Super Bowl. From the often lewd commercials and halftime show to the sometimes cult-like intensity of the fans and violence of the game itself, viewers must take care in how they view the Big Game, he said.

“The key is to be hyper aware of what this is, what you’re doing, and where you stand,” Camosy told CNA. “Be aware that we need to resist those things. Even call it out as you’re watching.”

While the Super Bowl is the most-watched television event in the U.S., there is growing concern that behind the screen and underneath the helmet, the brains of the players competing in the Super Bowl are sustaining potentially life-altering damage.

Within the past decade, researchers at various institutions have noted a link between repetitive brain trauma sustained in football – including hits that produce no immediate symptoms – and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Also known as CTE, the degenerative brain disease triggers progressive brain damage, and symptoms include memory loss, impulse control, depression and progressive dementia. The mental health problems created by CTE have also been linked to suicidal thoughts and attempts by former professional football players.

CTE has been found in 96 percent of NFL players whose brains were submitted for a 2015 analysis by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University. The disease was also found in 71 percent of all football players – including high school players – whose postmortem samples were submitted for research.

This risk for life-changing brain damage, Camosy said, is “built into football.”

“There are certain things built into football, at least the way we play the game now, that aren’t built into soccer” and other sports, he suggested.

“Given what we now know and given how central violence is to the game, that gives another reason perhaps to resist this.”

Camosy has written several essays on the morality of America’s football culture. He suggests that it is “morally problematic” to support a game that is so deeply intertwined with violence and connected to long-lasting damage for those who partake in it.

He pointed to the criticism voiced by Church Fathers including Tertullian for the Roman gladiator games and the Christians who went to see them. In his treatises, Tertullian slammed the games’ idolatry, the justifications for their bloody nature, the public’s addiction to watching them, and the violence of the matches themselves.

Many of these criticisms of the gladiatorial games, Camosy continued, are relevant to the way football is played today. “We prefer not to look at the violence. We somehow make it compatible with the non-violence Jesus calls us to,” he said.

Chad Pecknold, a professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at The Catholic University of America, had a different perspective.

While the gladiatorial games of the Roman Empire and American football today have some similarities – and can provide insight into the respective cultures that created them – there are also important differences, he said.

Most obviously, imminent death was a prominent characteristic of the gladiator games, in a way that is not characteristic of football.

“The Roman gladiatorial games were a by-product of war, and in this sense they were a potent cultural expression of Rome's ‘lust for domination,’” Pecknold said.

While theologians such as St. Augustine taught that in some circumstances, the violence of war could be justified, they criticized Rome’s approach to war and found that when the “horrific violence” of war was turned solely into entertainment in the gladiatorial games, that the games “were more pernicious than war itself,” he continued.

American football, Pecknold suggested, does not carry the exact same significance the early Christians cautioned against.

Still, he said, there is reason for caution with football.

“I am not sure if we should worry about football in the same way that the early Church fathers worried about gladiatorial spectacle, but we should pay attention to how easily the goodness of sports can be disordered.”

Both Camosy and Pecknold acknowledged positive aspects to the game of football – including the God-given athletic talent, strategy and teaching of virtue, as well as the game’s ability to bring together families and communities.

“If it can serve the common good of the family, the neighborhood, the community, then it's really terrific and we should thank God for it,” Pecknold said.

But that affection can quickly become disordered and occupy a disproportionate place in people’s lives, he cautioned. And the commercial aspect of football, which grows out of the economy, can also be concerning because of what it reflects about the culture.

Ultimately, he said, when approaching the Super Bowl and its content, “Christians can watch football with a clean conscience, but they might want to turn off the halftime show.”

Camosy agreed that it is possible to watch the Super Bowl with a clean conscience, but suggested that Christians avoid being drawn into the negative elements, perhaps by openly “(making) fun of the commercials and what the half-time show is all about.” He also warned Catholics who watch the Super Bowl to be wary of their own focuses and care for the game, and to be careful, when cheering for teams, “that we don’t create another source of ultimate concern here – that this isn’t another god.”

And Catholics should speak up about the violence that plagues the game, Camosy said.

“What I call for is a similar kind of shift that happened almost a hundred years ago,” he said, recalling Teddy Roosevelt’s reforms to the game when college students were dying during matches.

Washington D.C., Jan 29, 2018 / 04:30 pm (CNA).- A procedural vote on a Senate bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks failed on the evening of Jan. 29, after more than three hours of debate. The cloture motion, which would have prevented a filibuster on the bill, required 60 votes to pass, and failed by a vote of 51-46.

The bill could continue to be considered in the Senate, even with the prospect of a filibuster, though this is not widely expected. The bill is likely to be a topic of debate in 2018 Senate elections.

The U.S. is one of seven countries in the world that allow abortions after 5 months of pregnancy.

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act proposes that abortion be made illegal after 20 weeks of gestation, on the basis that fetal neural development enables the unborn to experience pain at that point. The bill includes exceptions for an abortion in the case of rape or incest, as well in the circumstances in which the pregnancy threatened the life or the mother.

“After 20 weeks, the unborn child reacts to stimuli that would be recognized as painful if applied to an adult human, for example, by recoiling,” according to the text of the Pain-Capable Act.

Because of an unborn child’s sensitivity to pain at this stage, anesthesia is regularly administered during in-utero surgery after 20 weeks. An ultrasound can reveal the gender of an unborn child, who can be viewed sucking their thumb, yawning, or stretching by 20 weeks of pregnancy. The nervous system begins functioning in the fourth month of pregnancy.

The bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives in Oct. 2017, is opposed by most Senate Democrats. To prevent a filibuster, Republicans needed Democratic support, in addition to the votes of the 51 Republican Senators.

Twenty-one states currently have a law banning abortion after 20 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute. A recent Marist poll commissioned by the Knights of Columbus found that 76 percent of Americans support limiting abortion to the first trimester of pregnancy.

“There is no reason why this should be a partisan issue,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor before the vote.

“The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act reflects a mainstream, growing consensus that unborn children should not be subjected to elective-abortion after 20 weeks,” he added.

In France, Italy, and Germany, abortion is illegal after 12 weeks of pregnancy. The United States, China, North Korea, Canada, the Netherlands, Singapore, and Vietnam are the seven countries that permit elective abortions after 20 weeks.

This year, Ash Wednesday—which begins the penitential season of Lent with a day of fasting, abstinence, and prayer—falls on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day celebrates a third-century Christian martyr, but it has also become a celebration of romantic love, replete with with chocolates, fancy prix fixe menus, roses, and an overload of candy hearts.

The Archdiocese of Chicago has clarified that Lent is more important than candy hearts, and suggested that Catholics pick some other day for paper hearts and Cupid’s arrows.

A statement released by the Archdiocese explained that Catholics will not be dispensed from the laws of fasting and abstinence on Ash Wednesday, and suggested that Catholics planning to celebrate Valentine’s Day could do so on Feb. 13th, which is also Mardi Gras.

“The obligation of fast and abstinence must naturally be the priority in the Catholic community,” said the statement.

“Valentine’s Day can appropriately be celebrated the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday which also happens to be Mardi Gras, a traditionally festive time before beginning our Lenten observance.”

Mardi Gras is traditionally celebrated each year on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Customary Mardi Gras celebrations include parades, elaborate costumes, and the consumption of pancakes. In the Archdiocese of Chicago, it might also serve as a substitute Valentine’s Day.

Catholics 18-59 are required to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Catholics 14 and older are also required to abstain from meat on those days, and on Lenten Fridays. According to the US bishops’ conference, a person fasting “is permitted to eat one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to a full meal.”

Washington D.C., Jan 28, 2018 / 04:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. bishops have selected the young adult delegates who will represent the country at the pre-synod gathering in Rome this March, which will take place before the 2018 Youth Synod of Bishops in October.

The three delegates, all 20-somethings, represent a variety of vocations and will be able to bring their personal perspectives, as well as what they have learned from working with young people at local and national levels, to the gathering in Rome, said a representative of the U.S. bishops’ conference.

“What was not really intended, but certainly was wonderful to see, was that they really reflect the vocational diversity (of the Church),” said Paul Jarzembowski, assistant director for youth and young adult ministries at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“This is a pre-synod meeting on the reality of young people but also the vocational pathways, so it was wonderful to see that the three representatives...represent the three particular phases and experiences of the vocational journey, it just made for a wonderful diversity of the vocational and ministerial experiences,” he told CNA.

The chosen delegates are: Brother Javier Hansen, FSC, a LaSallian Brother who teaches religion at Cathedral High School-El Paso, Texas; Nick López, a single young adult who is the director of campus ministry for the University of Dallas and a guest columnist for the Catholic News Service; and Katie Prejean McGrady, a wife, new mother, youth minister, and speaker from the Diocese of Lake Charles in Louisiana.

The pre-synod gathering is significant because it is yet another way that the Church is listening to and gathering information about youth and young people, ages 16-30, the demographic on which the synod will focus, Jarzembowski said.

Typically, the bishops gather pre-synod data from questionnaires sent out to episcopal conferences, but this year the bishops are also including this pre-synod gathering as well as the pre-synod youth survey, which was available online last year.

“So when the bishops meet in Rome in October, they will have a lot of information at their fingertips in terms of what is the experience of young people today,” Jarzembowski said.

The Youth Synod’s theme is “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment.” While an official agenda has yet to be set, the preparatory document outlines some of the things that the bishops will be discussing, while the rest will be determined by the pre-synod survey as well as the gathering.

Brother Hansen said that he looks forward to representing young adult religious vocations, as well as his students, at the gathering.

“I believe I offer the perspective of many young religious in this country and those who are currently discerning religious life,” he said in a statement. “I not only will represent the people of my generation but also the young people I interact with every day in the classroom.”

For Lopez, the gathering is an opportunity to share what he has learned working in youth ministry, as well as his perspective on the American and Latino youth experience.

In comments to CNA, Prejean McGrady said she is looking forward to learning from other youth ministers throughout the word, as well as sharing what she’s learned in her work with young people in America.

“...I’ve noticed that American youth are hungry for authentic encounter: with each other, with their families, with the Church, and ultimately with Jesus,” she said.

“They are seeking the chance to communicate and share their hearts, and be guided on their journey, but they’re confronted with the noise of the culture and struggle to find opportunities to authentically share, be heard, and listen. I hope to convey that our American youth want to know Jesus, and there are many successful ways we are helping young people meet Him in our country.”

Fostering vocations; the impact of technology and social media on individuals and communities; and best practices for youth and young adult ministry are likely to be some of the key topics going forward in the gathering and the synod, Jarzembowski said.

He added that he was excited about the chosen delegates because not only are they young people themselves, but they are accompanying other young people in the faith.

“They’re young people working with young people, which in and of itself is a wonderful model for the way we should accompany one another,” he said.

“We don’t do this Church thing alone, we walk with each other. And these are three examples of young adults who are walking with other young people, and we can’t go wrong with that model.”

Jarzembowski encouraged young people to continue offering their perspectives and follow along with the pre-synod gathering as well as the synod by following @Synod2018 on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Chicago, Ill., Jan 27, 2018 / 04:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a recent study, teenage girls were found to feel powerless when asked for a nude image of themselves from young men, most often saying they felt trapped, bombarded, coerced, and confused when confronted with “sexting” requests.

Perhaps even more alarming is that most of the young women in the study reported that the pressure to sext was normal and accepted boys’ aggressive behavior as acceptable. Even more, the only negative language the girls used was not against their male counterparts – but instead to describe themselves or other girls.

Of the 7,000 experiences, Thomas focused on 462 stories in which girls reported sexting, sending nude photos, and related experiences from the years 2010-2016. The average age of the girls was 15.

Thomas noted the study’s limitations, saying that the shared experiences were the result of an anonymous online platform, which neglects to include important information such as the girls’ demographic backgrounds and may not be indicative of all young women’s experiences. Most of the girls were also adolescent and there was no information given about the male counterparts who reportedly pressured the girls into sexting.

However, the study is able to highlight a number of adolescent girls’ struggles when faced with requests for nude photos, most of whom reported that they did not want to send the images. Also noteworthy was the most common reaction among the girls when asked for photos: “What should I do?”

“Teenage girls know the potential risks and are disinclined to [sext], yet they continue to share their images anyway. They struggle to say no,” said Thomas, in an interview with Northwestern Now.

Thomas also noted that the girls seem to be ill-equipped with the resources and tools necessary to face pressured requests from young men.

Of the girls who sent nude photos, “more than 90 percent…engaged in what could be considered unwanted but consensual sexting to either prove their affections or avoid reproach or conflict with their partners,” the study reported.

The study also noted that none of the girls who sent nude photos felt relieved or good about their choice. In addition, 40 percent of the stories said their nude photos were sent to unintended audiences. One girl reported that her nude image ended up on the personal phones of over 300 people.

“It appears that a desire for status, love or pressure from boys to be ‘good girlfriends,’ threats, anger or relational consequences compel them to consider sending photographs,” the study said of the girls who were asked to send nude images.

Of the girls who refused, 31 percent said there were repercussions for not engaging in sexting or sending nude images, such as “having the boy get angry, break up with them, or make more requests despite their refusal.”

In addition, a number of the girls expressed a level of normalcy in being asked to provide nude images or engage in sexting. They also did not describe their male counterparts as blameworthy, but instead described themselves as “weak,” “pathetic,” having “ridiculously low self-esteem,” or a “horrible person.”

When not describing themselves, the girls sometimes used negative language against other girls, calling those who did not send nude images “prudes.”

Thomas concluded that her study was “not meant to suggest that all young women struggle with immediate day to day pressures, to represent all young women as victims of coercive tactics, or to represent all young men as coercive or threatening.”

“Rather, it is the aim of this study to explore the struggles young women experience and to elaborate on our current understanding of young women’s dilemmas as they develop romantic and sexual relationships in this digital era.”

Thomas also added that young women need support and information on how to navigate pressuring situations from males, while there is also an overwhelming need for males to act with respect and boundary acceptance.

Washington D.C., Jan 26, 2018 / 04:36 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Thursday, US President Donald Trump announced a proposal to create a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million people brought to the United States as children in exchange for increased funding for border security and for an end to “chain-migration” and diversity visa lottery policies.

The plan is controversial, from both the left and the right. The right is concerned that Trump is backing away from his campaign promises and that this new pathway to citizenship effectively amounts to amnesty, whereas the left thinks the proposals are too “hard-line” and that the “Dreamers” are being used as pawns to advance an agenda.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has a more nuanced take on the issue.

In an interview with Catholic News Agency, Bill Canny, executive director of the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services Offices, said that while the bishops agree that border security is important, this proposal is only going to create animosity between Republicans and Democrats and will not improve the current situation for the “Dreamers.”

“The bishops believe that it’s important the citizenry is protected, that our borders are secure, and that we don’t live in any fear,” said Canny.

However, he was concerned that a “high amount” of money was being put into various enforcement measures that he doesn’t think would lead to any sort of progress or agreement.

“The debate will not be fruitful” if the current proposal stands, he said.

Further, Canny said that he did not think it was right that the “plight of the Dreamers” was being used to push different restrictions on immigration.

“We don’t believe it’s the right time to take up all of these issues. Stay focused on the Dreamers – we know border security is an issue.”

As for the proposed restrictions on what’s being referred to as “chain migration” or “family reunification,” Canny believes that the updated definition of “family” – which prevents immigrants from sponsoring visas for their parents, siblings, or adult children – is “very troubling.”

The proposal would include funding for a border wall, and end the diversity visa lottery, by which 50,000 people from around the world annually are randomly granted Green Cards, or permanent residency status.

Washington D.C., Jan 26, 2018 / 04:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic aid leaders and others have requested that the White House reconsider its decision to withhold $65 million designated for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Leaders of 21 global aid groups, including Catholic Relief Services and Jesuit Refugee Services/USA, signed a Jan. 24 letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other U.S. leaders, expressing concern that cuts in humanitarian aid will have “dire consequences” on emergency food and medical aid in the region.

“We are deeply concerned by the humanitarian consequences of this decision on life-sustaining assistance to children, women and men in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” reads the letter, posted online by the Palestine News Agency.

Giulia McPherson, Interim Executive Director of Jesuit Refugee Services told CNA, “As a UN partner that also serves Palestinian refugees through some of our programming, we felt compelled to join this effort.”

“We know that places like this are strapped for resources, having taken in millions of refugees in recent years due to war in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. When resources are taken away for a specific population, such as UNRWA, the impacts can be felt throughout the region,” McPherson continued.

The letter said the decision “impacting humanitarian aid to civilians is not based on any assessment of need, but rather designed both to punish Palestinian political leaders and to force political concessions from them.”

“This is...a dangerous and striking departure from U.S. policy on international humanitarian assistance,” it read.

The United States will provide $60 million in 2018 to UN relief efforts for Palestinian refugees. According to State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, the Trump Administration will withhold an additional $65 million for future consideration, until it determines whether UNRWA has made reforms that have not yet been specified.

On Jan. 2, President Trump tweeted “we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue … peace treaty with Israel.”

He added: “With the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”

At a Jan. 16 press conference, Nauert said the decision to withhold aid to refugees was not politically motivated, or related to recent regional controversy of a US decision to relocate its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. She declined to comment on whether withholding the funds was related to the president’s tweets.

The aid organizations contrasted current foreign aid protocols with the approach of the Reagan and Bush administrations. “The Reagan Administration declared that ‘a hungry child knows no politics,’ and, indeed, this sentiment has guided U.S. policy makers for decades,” their letter said.

“This sentiment is, for example, reflected in the international Good Humanitarian Donorship Initiative, an intergovernmental donor forum and network that the United States helped to establish during the Administration of George W. Bush. That initiative includes best practices that the Bush administration and subsequent administrations have endorsed, including the propositions that ‘humanitarian action should be guided by … the centrality of saving human lives and alleviating suffering wherever it is found,’ and that humanitarian assistance to vulnerable populations should be ‘solely on the basis of need, without discrimination between or within affected population,’” the letter continued.

Nauert said that the Administration’s decision might motivate other countries to support Palestine. “The United States has been, in the past, the largest single donor to UNRWA. We would like other countries – in fact, other countries that criticize the United States for what they believe to be our position vis-a-vis the Palestinians, other countries that have criticized us – to step forward and actually help with UNRWA.”

Catholic Relief Services, which is overseen by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, was also a signatory to the letter.

“Catholic Relief Services has grave concerns about the humanitarian impact these cuts will have on the people UNRWA serves, and CRS does not believe political conditions should be applied to that aid,” CRS Vice President of Government Relations and Advocacy Bill O’Keefe told CNA.

CRS told CNA they will continue to serve the people of Gaza, in response to the Holy Father’s call on Christmas Day, 2017.

“We see Jesus in the children of the Middle East who continue to suffer because of growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians,” the Pope said.